


Teenage Dream

by saturn_shumba



Series: Teenage Dream [1]
Category: Community
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Romantic Comedy, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-14
Updated: 2011-06-14
Packaged: 2017-10-20 09:51:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/211471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saturn_shumba/pseuds/saturn_shumba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Mr. Winger probably just needed a friend.  Or even better, an exemplary student.</i> A Season One High School AU where Jeff's the teacher, Annie's the student, Troy has a secret, and Abed tries to keep track of all the plot twists.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Teenage Dream: Part One

Annie stared at her reflection in her bedroom mirror. She evaluated her outfit: a blue dress that fell a few inches above her knees, a light green sweater tied around her shoulders, and black Mary Jane's.

Annie bit her lip thoughtfully, then untied the sweater and stuck her arms through it. Much better. Now she looked less like a schoolmarm and more like a high school student. A _mature_ high school student. One who was in her last year of high school and who would be attending a fabulous university next fall, where she would do exciting things like join protests, and maybe date a rebel. But not too much of a rebel. Just enough to make him cool. Like, he wouldn't wear shirts indoors or something.

But the rebel was a fallback fantasy. What she really wanted was a long term guy, someone to go steady with in high school, then graduate with, then go to college with, so they could walk around campus holding hands.

She thought she had found that guy last year. But in the end...Annie's smile faltered a bit. She shook her head. Best not to dwell on that. Her ex had found his long time guy, and she couldn't help but be happy for him.

Besides, Annie had found her true soulmate.

She glanced up at the right hand corner of her mirror. There, carefully cut out from her junior yearbook, was a picture of Troy Barnes, the most perfect guy in the entire universe. She had placed little red sticker hearts around him when she put the picture up last year; some of them were fraying at the corners. She smoothed down one of the corners with an index finger, then swept a finger over his cheek.

"This year, Annie Edison gets what she wants," she whispered to herself. Her hand dropped back to her side. She smiled brightly at her reflection and left her room, skipping down the stairs and out the front door.

* * *

Annie's last class of the day was Yearbook. It was also her only class without Troy. But Troy was an Office Aid, which was basically a free period. And his best friend, Abed Nadir, was in Yearbook with her. Which meant Troy would probably be spending a lot of time in her class.

Annie had known Abed for two years without ever really _knowing_ him. All they had was the journalism class connection. Well, it was time for Annie to make that connection a little closer. After all, Troy was going to be her soulmate. She needed to be best friends with his best friend, right?

Annie walked into Room 106 and immediately zeroed in on Abed. He was sitting in a desk at the front of the room. Nobody was around him. Perfect. She slid into the seat next to him.

"Hi, Abed," she said cheerfully.

Abed was building a paper fortune teller. He looked up from his desk at Annie, and raised an eyebrow. He glanced over her shoulder to their other classmates, then looked up at the ceiling, then to the window behind him, and back to Annie. She gave him a confused look.

Abed looked back at his desk. "Plot twist," he said simply.

"Umm, what twist?" Annie followed the path Abed had looked at earlier and glanced at him, the ceiling, and the window.

"Plot twist. You're sitting next to me. You've never done that before. Which means you're changing the story. So, plot twist. We should expect the unexpected. A shark could crash through that window." He paused. "Or something less surreal. Although I feel like there isn't an appreciation for the surreal in stories these days. I guess Lost could count, but everyone demanded answers for everything. They weren't content with things just being mysterious. Like the smoke monster."

Annie was getting a little weirded out. Maybe being friends with Abed to get to Troy wasn't the way to go. But she'd already sat down. It would be rude to leave. It would be _weak_ to leave. Didn't she tell herself that she was going to get what she wanted?

Annie shook her head and smiled. "I don't think it's a plot twist. Like you said, that would be totally unexpected. This isn't totally unexpected. I just want to be friends with you."

Abed gave her a thoughtful look. "Okay. Cool." He looked back up at the ceiling. "But I still feel like a plot twist is coming."

The bell rang and the classroom door opened. But it wasn't Mrs. White. Instead, a thirty something guy with dirty blond hair and blue eyes walked in. He was wearing a white button up shirt rolled up at the sleeves, a skinny black tie, and blue jeans. He was also gigantic, over six feet tall. If Annie wasn't totally devoted to Troy, she might have admitted that he was pretty cute. For an older guy.

He stood by the desk in the front, looking over the class silently. He sighed dramatically, running a hand down his face before turning towards the chalkboard, hunting for a piece of chalk. Annie and Abed shared a look as the guy wrote out "Mr. Winger" on the board. He dropped the chalk on the ledge and turned back around to face the class.

"Alright. I'm Jeff—I mean, Mr. Winger, and I'm your new yearbook teacher," he said in a bored tone.

Annie reluctantly raised her hand. Mr. Winger pointed at her. "What."

"Umm..." Annie lowered her arm slowly. "What happened to Mrs. White?"

"Dead. Or retired, I can't remember." He wasn't looking at her anymore, but was sitting at the desk searching through the drawers. He fished out an old school newspaper from last year. "Alright, I don't have anything planned yet, so uh, free period." He propped his feet up on his desk and dropped the newspaper to cover his face.

A few minutes later, he was snoring.

Annie let out a small gasp.

* * *

"I can't believe Mrs. White retired and left us with...with him!" Annie was sitting at her station with Abed and Troy in Home Economics and furiously stirring a bowl of cake batter.

"I like him," Abed said. "He has the potential to be the classic rebel teacher, like Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society. I hope he makes us rip pages out of our old yearbooks."

Annie let out an indignant gasp. "He'd probably be too busy using the yearbooks as a pillow!"

"Well, I think he sounds awesome," Troy said, sticking a finger in the bowl and popping it into his mouth. "I'm gonna try and stop by today. It depends on how many errands Ms. Perry wants me to run."

Annie stopped stirring. Abed slid the bowl away from her and resumed her duties.

"You're...you're helping Ms. Perry? I thought you were just an office aid."

Troy was trying to dip his fingers into the bowl again, but Abed slapped his hand away. "Yeah, I was. But I ran into Ms. Perry in the hallway when I was delivering a message to Senor Chang, and she said she needed help organizing her Vegetarian Awareness Fair, so I said I'd help her. Besides," Troy grinned, "She's really hot."

That's _exactly_ what Annie was worried about. Troy was just popular enough...and Ms. Perry was just liberal enough...

Annie snatched the bowl away from Abed and began stirring frantically, chanting _You're gonna get what you want Annie!_ and _Troy and Ms. Perry are_ not _having a scandalous affair!_ over and over again in her head.

"My, my, there's a lot of chatter over here this morning!" Annie turned around to face their Home Ec teacher, Mrs. Bennett, who was smiling at the three brightly. She was wearing her favorite apron, a light pink one that said "Jesus loves the Cook!" on it. "What're you all talking about?"

Annie knew she wasn't in trouble. Mrs. Bennett just liked to know what her students were talking about. All the time. So she could give them "advice." Annie gave Mrs. Bennett a small smile and muttered 'Oh, nothing' while Troy looked at some point on the ceiling.

Abed however, answered her. "We were talking about the new teacher, Mr. Winger."

Annie let out a frustrated sigh, and Troy punched Abed in the arm. Mrs. Bennett pretended not to notice their reactions. "Oh, that's nice! He's a cute one, isn't he?" she said, winking at Annie.

"He is," Abed said. Mrs. Bennett gave him a puzzled look, while Annie turned back to the bowl. She motioned Troy to slide the cake pan over to her so she could pour the batter in.

"You know, he's not just new to Greendale High. He's new to Greendale! Apparently he used to be a lawyer in Denver but he got--" Mrs. Bennett looked around them and lowered her voice to a whisper--"disbarred."

Annie looked up. "Really? Why?"

Mrs. Bennett shrugged. "I don't know. He was taking one of Principal Pelton's classes at GCC and I guess Craig really liked him because he offered him this job. Apparently Mr. Winger got his Bachelor's in Journalism."

"Yeah, I'm sure Pelton's PANTS really liked Mr. Winger," Troy said. He held up his hand and Abed automatically gave him a high five.

Mrs. Bennett narrowed her eyes. "Mr. Barnes, you know I do not approve--" she was cut off though, when the classroom door opened. Her disposition darkened further when she saw who it was.

"Shirley! Brittles just told me your divorce was finalized! I'm here for you, Mrs. Bennett. Or is it 'Miss Bennett, if you're nasty' now?" Mr. Hawthorne walked towards Mrs. Bennett and offered her a bouquet of flowers.

"Mr. Hawthorne," Mrs. Bennett said, and Annie could tell she was doing everything to keep her voice even. "Will you join me out in the hallway?" She grabbed his arm and dragged him outside before he had a chance to answer.

Troy leaned over and whispered in Annie's ear. "That was close, huh?"

Annie's heart fluttered and she nodded and ducked her head, smiling.

 

* * *

In Yearbook later that day, Annie decided that she probably misjudged Mr. Winger. He had a dark past! A dark past which was so haunting the only way to escape it was to sleep instead of teaching. Annie's eyes filled with sympathy tears. He probably just needed a friend. Or even better, an exemplary student.

Which she excelled at.

Annie straightened up in her seat, folded her hands on top of her desk and gave Mr. Winger a large smile.

Mr. Winger eyed her warily. "Edison?"

"Ready to learn!" she chirped.

"...Right. Okay, guys, it's Darkroom day." He pointed at the revolving darkroom door. Everyone stood up and filed towards the door. "And don't pack in there like sardines. Take turns. Wait." Mr. Winger turned towards Troy. "Who are you?"

"Troy Barnes."

"You weren't here yesterday."

"Yeah, I'm an office aid."

Mr. Winger crossed his arms. "Do you have something to give me?"

Troy shrugged. "Nope."

"Then get out."

Annie stepped between the two. "Mr. Winger, Troy doesn't have very many errands to run, so he thought he'd help out with the yearbook." Mr. Winger opened his mouth to say something but Annie cut him off. "Please. Let him stay." She gave him her most wide eyed, pleading look.

Mr. Winger glared down at her, but Annie didn't let up on her doe eyes. "Alright," he said, defeated.

Annie beamed. "Thank you, Mr. Winger."

"Yeah." They filed into the doorway and Mr. Winger spun the door around. Annie and Troy stepped out and stood by Abed while Mr. Winger stood opposite the class.

"Alright, I know you all can work a digital camera, but I think it's important that you all learn how to develop pictures the old way." He went around the room and handed everyone a long strip of film and a small reel.

"So when you develop pictures you can have the safe lamp on. But when you first take the film out of the camera and roll it on the reels, you have to do it with no lights, not even the safe lamps. You can only turn the lights on when the reels are tucked safely into the film canister." He rested a hand on top of a canister that looked like an oversized tumbler. "We'll do a few practice runs then try it in the dark. Alright, get going."

Annie went to work on her reel. Mr. Winger went around and checked their work, pointing out mistakes in her classmates' final product. Annie was just finishing her reel when Mr. Winger walked up to her. He gently plucked it from her hands and examined it. "Perfect. Very nice, Edison." They shared a smile before he stepped over to examine Abed's work.

* * *

A month passed, and Mr. Winger became Annie's favorite teacher. He was just so laid back and undemanding. It was nice. And he was nice to her.

She _knew_ that all he needed was an exemplary student!

Annie started spending more and more time in his classroom. She spent her third period study hall in the darkroom, and she stayed for at least an hour after school, developing photos for Abed's yearbook layouts.

She was developing a photo of Troy playing football when Mr. Winger came into the darkroom. He leaned over her shoulder to look at her photo.

"Nice shot," he said.

Annie placed the photo on the counter to dry. "Thanks!" She turned around to face him and noticed that he was looking at her thoughtfully.

"Mr. Winger?"

"You're my new Editor-in-Chief."

Annie squeaked. "Yes! I mean...what...can you do that?"

Mr. Winger just shrugged. "I just did."

Annie looked down at the floor, before shyly looking up at him. "You think I'm good enough?"

"Of course. You're talented, responsible and awesome. You were made for this."

Annie beamed. "That means a lot, coming from you."

Mr. Winger laughed. "Most people wouldn't think so."

Annie locked eyes with him. "I do."

They held each other's gaze for a beat before Mr. Winger broke it off. He stared at the floor and cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah. I'll tell the class tomorrow." He walked towards the door, stopped, then turned around. "Congratulations, Edison."

Annie made a pleasant little hum and turned back to her photos.

* * *

Annie went to the Homecoming game to take photos, but she didn't go to the dance. Abed convinced her that no big game changers happened at Homecoming dances, and said she should just save her money for Prom, which according to Abed, would have so many revelations and plot twists and end of season cliffhangers her head would explode.

That made Annie feel a little bit better about Troy taking Randi to Homecoming. So instead of going to the Homecoming dance, Annie went over to Abed's house and watched horror films.

But on Monday in Home Ec, they both discovered they had missed a pretty big game changer at the dance.

"Oh, isn't it nice! Mr. Winger and Ms. Perry decided to start dating! They both finally realized how perfect their love could be!" Mrs. (newly Ms., actually) Bennett clutched her hands to her chest and cooed happily.

Troy scoffed. "Yeah, if perfect means 'hookup in the library'."

Ms. Bennett glared at him. Troy's eyes widened fearfully. She held her glare for another minute before moving on to the next station.

Once she was gone, Annie leaned towards Troy. "Is that really what happened?"

"Uh...yeah." He was still staring at Ms. Bennett's back nervously.

Annie sighed inwardly. Why did Miss Perry get everything?

Wait...what? Annie frowned thoughtfully.

This wasn't a bad thing. If Mr. Winger was with Ms. Perry...that meant that Troy wasn't having an illicit affair with her! Which meant Troy was destined to be with her...crap, Randi! How could she forget about the girl that actually went to the dance with Troy?

For some reason, Ms. Perry just felt like a bigger threat.

Annie decided to push away the thoughts of Mr. Winger and Ms. Perry and casually ask Troy about Randi. Maybe they only went to the dance together and it was nothing bigger than that. "So, did you have fun with Randi at the dance, Troy?"

But Troy was still stuck on Mr. Winger and Ms. Perry. "Maybe it was more than just a library hookup. Abed, what did you say they had? Tense sex?"

Annie gasped.

"Actually, sexual tension. And lack of chemistry. Which means nothing more happened outside of the library."

Troy nodded in understanding, and Annie let out a sigh of relief. "Good. Besides, Ms. Perry is waaay too good for Douchebag Winger."

Annie gasped even louder. "Troy! Mr. Winger is NOT..." she lowered her voice to a whisper "A douchebag!"

"You would say that, teacher's pet."

"Look who's talking, you...you...vegetarian's pet!"

Troy glared at her. "You don't know Ms. Perry! She has _layers_! She's like an onion! And when you peel back each layer you discover something SO AWESOME it makes you cry!" Troy stormed to the front of the classroom. "Ms. Bennett, I'm using the bathroom!"

And then he was gone. Annie crossed her arms and glared at the table.

"After their fight, Annie realized that the connection between Ms. Perry and Troy was something real and not just a figment of her active imagination. There was also something else, something deeper, but Annie was still mad at Troy that she didn't quite yet realize that she--"

"Abed."

"I'm done. Also, Randi's not with Troy."

"Yay," Annie said flatly.

* * *

"Edison, that picture of Barnes is a bit overexposed. Actually, it's a lot overexposed."

"Is it?" Annie said tersely.

"Yeah. You can barely make his face out."

"Well, maybe I want him to fade out of existence." Annie grabbed the picture with tongs and shook it out roughly before slapping it down on the table.

"Alright, Edison, what happened?"

Annie 'hmphed' and crossed her arms. "Nothing."

Mr. Winger didn't say anything. He walked over to the opposite side of the room and calmly looked through the cabinets.

Annie stood there stiffly, staring at her washed out Troy picture, listening to Mr. Winger rummage through the cabinets. Stupid Troy. What did he know about _anything_? He thought Mr. Winger was a douchebag, when he _totally_ wasn't! Well, she'd show Troy.

Annie turned around and blurted out, "Troy called you a douchebag!"

Mr. Winger stared at her. Annie stood there, her eyes wide.

That sounded totally dumb outside of her head.

But Mr. Winger just tilted his head thoughtfully. "He also called me Dr. Dougie Seacrest. 'Douchebag' is actually a step down from that."

Annie looked at him in awe. "You...you don't care?"

Mr. Winger shrugged. "Should I?"

Annie sighed and threw up her hands. " _He_ should! I mean, you're my favorite teacher! My soulmate should like what I like!" Annie blushed and covered her mouth. Did she just..? Great. She just confessed to Mr. Winger that she thought Troy was her soulmate.

Mr. Winger stared at her in shock. Annie braced herself for a humiliating conversation about teenage relationships.

But instead, Mr. Winger just said, "I'm your favorite teacher?"

Annie blinked in surprise. "Yes! Of course! I mean...you're _Mr. Winger_. And just...you're just..." she trailed off.

Mr. Winger stared at Annie, his face a mixture of awe and admiration. He smiled.

"That means a lot, coming from you."

Annie shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Well. Most people wouldn't think so," she said, mirroring their old conversation.

Mr. Winger took a couple steps towards her, stopping just in front of her.

"I do," he said softly. He reached up and brushed her hair behind her ear.

Annie's heart was thudding furiously.

What...when...

When did this happen...

Suddenly a voice called out from the classroom.

"Jeffery! We're here! Are you ready for our Sausage Fest?"

Annie and Mr. Winger jumped apart.

"Uh," Mr. Winger said in strangled voice. "Be right there!"

Annie quickly gathered her things. "See you tomorrow, Mr. Winger," she said hurriedly. She brushed past him and stepped into the revolving door alone, quickly spinning it around. She kept her eyes on the floor as she walked past Mr. Hawthorne and Senor Chang and left the classroom.


	2. Teenage Dream: Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He moved on. She could too.

Annie ran up the stairs of her house to her bedroom, threw her backpack on the floor, and collapsed face down on her bed.

Did that just happen? Oh my God. Mr. Winger was her teacher. Her _teacher_! This couldn't be happening. How was she going to face him tomorrow?

Although, it was pretty nice...

Annie sat up suddenly. No. She wasn't going to do this. She had a serious problem, and she had to take it seriously. This was no time to fall into a mess of teenage feelings. She needed to sort everything out. There was a perfectly logical reason to what happened between her and Mr. Winger in the darkroom.

It was all Troy's fault.

He just had to call Mr. Winger a douchebag. He _knew_ that Annie would tell Mr. Winger about it, and he _knew_ that they would share a...moment. Annie huffed angrily. Troy probably thought he was so _clever_ , making her feel...something...for Mr. Winger.

Well, she'd show him.

* * *

Mr. Winger didn't show up for school the next day. Senor Chang ended up subbing for their class, and he spent half of the time yelling that he was a Spanish genius and the other half talking about how great Mr. Winger's pecs were to lay on when you were crying.

Annie was too consumed with Operation Troy to be irritated about Senor Chang and his lack of teaching skills, or to even think about how Mr. Winger was mysteriously gone today, and wonder if maybe she flustered him...and she was ignoring that feeling in her chest. Operation Troy. Operation _Troy_.

Troy was sitting in the desk in front of her, writing 'T-Bone wuz here' on the desktop. Annie clenched her fists. Look at him, casually defacing school property.

He had no idea what was coming to him.

The bell rang. Troy yawned, and stood up and stretched.

Abed stood up as well, slinging his messenger bag over his shoulder. "Troy, I got some more tin foil. Do you want to help me wrap it onto our Kickpuncher costumes today?"

Troy's eyes lit up, but then he glanced at the calendar on the wall. "Nah, not today. I promised Ms. Perry that I would help her with something."

Annie casually slipped her books into her bag and stood up to join the two. "Really, Troy? The Vegetarian Awareness Fair is long over."

Troy looked nervous. "Yeah. But there's...other stuff. Other...vegetables." He stood there awkwardly for a minute before waving goodbye to Annie and Abed and rushing out the door. Abed shrugged his shoulders, waved goodbye to Annie and left as well.

Annie stayed in the classroom. She asked Senor Chang if it was okay if she stayed after school and worked in the darkroom, and Senor Chang waved an approval as he walked out the door, telling her to make sure to turn off all the lights in the room when she left.

Annie loitered in the darkroom and made a few contact sheets. After twenty minutes, she tucked all her work into her backpack, turned off all the lights and headed towards Ms. Perry's classroom. The halls were empty; a couple of the classrooms were filled with students serving detentions or having meetings for extracurricular activities. When she got to Ms. Perry's classroom it was locked--and empty. Annie let out a frustrated sigh. Where were they? Maybe they were in the cafeteria, or the auditorium.

A quick glance through the large windows of the cafeteria showed no one, so Annie walked to the front entrance of the school, where the auditorium was. She pulled on the handle; the door was locked. Puzzled, Annie went around the side and tried the door that opened closest to the stage. Also locked.

Annie pressed her ear against the door and tried to see if she could hear Troy's voice. Nothing. Annie pulled at the handle a couple more times, dejectedly, before giving up.

Annie walked out the front doors of the school. She was about to head home when she remembered the emergency exit door behind the stage that led straight outside. Sometimes the drama students would prop the door open so they could nip outside and smoke instead of walking around to the school's front doors to get outside. Annie rushed over to the side of the building and grinned when saw a fairy wand propping the door open. She crept up to the door slowly, pausing just outside the crack to listen inside.

She heard Troy. And Ms. Perry. But they were too far in for Annie to understand what they were saying. Annie stepped back from the door and took a deep breath. She went over Operation Troy in her head:

Step One: Discover Troy and Ms. Perry in an illicit teacher/student relationship.

Step Two: Once discovered, point at them and yell "A-ha!"

Annie smiled to herself. Now Troy would know what it felt like to be confronted with an onslaught of feelings! He would _never_ recover.

Annie pulled the door open.

It was really dark inside, so she couldn't see anything at first. She stood just inside of the door for a minute to allow her eyes to adjust, and then slowly crept down the dressing room hallway. She stopped just outside the doorway that led out onto the main stage. She could hear Troy and Ms. Perry much clearer now and...what were they _doing_? They were gasping and grunting like...no.

They _weren't_.

Annie let out a small shriek. She clasped her hands over her mouth but the damage was done--the gasping and grunting (eww!) stopped. Then she heard Troy nervously call out "Who's there?"

And before Annie realized what she was doing, she ran out onto the main stage, one hand over her eyes, and yelled out "A-HA!"

A minute passed. Troy and Ms. Perry didn't say or do anything. Annie had to see what was going on. She moved her fingers and peered through them.

Troy was wearing a leotard. Annie dropped her hand from her eyes. Troy and Ms. Perry were both wearing black leotards.

Troy screamed at the top of his lungs.

* * *

Ms. Perry had ducked out the emergency exit to smoke. Troy and Annie sat at the edge of the stage, their feet dangling down into the orchestra pit.

"She's teaching you interpretive dance?"

Troy wiggled his feet. "Yeah. Coach said it would help playing football, and I found out Ms. Perry used to be a tap dancer so..." he shrugged. "It's fun. Ms. Perry is a good teacher."

Annie looked down at her feet. "Does Abed know?"

"NO. And don't tell him. This is between me and Ms. Perry. And now you."

"He won't care, you know. He's your best friend. His reaction is going to be ten times better than mine."

Troy laughed. "Yeah. About that. If you didn't know I was taking dance, what was with the 'A-ha!'?"

Annie tensed. Should she tell him? She _did_ stumble on Troy's big secret. And she'd already made a huge fool of herself.

And Troy was her...friend. Annie smiled to herself. Yeah, he was her friend.

"I thought...that you and Ms. Perry were having a teacher/student affair."

Troy's eyes widened. "Dude," he said in a high pitched voice. "That's AWESOME."

Annie laughed. "But you're not...right?"

Troy shook his head. "But still...AWESOME."

Annie laughed again and stood up, dusting off her skirt. "I better go."

Troy stood up as well. "Yeah."

"Bye, Troy."

He waved. Annie walked towards the exit.

"Hey, Annie."

She turned around.

"You're a good friend."

Annie smiled. "You too, Troy."

Annie smiled all the way home. When she got up to her room, she took down the picture of Troy taped to her mirror.

* * *

Troy ended up telling Abed about his dance lessons a few days later, after Home Ec. Abed immediately launched into a spastic dance routine, right in the middle of the hall. Annie wanted to laugh, but Troy looked so touched (there were tears in his eyes and _everything_ ) that she kept it in. Troy gave Abed a huge hug after his dance and they both started planning for their new film _Kickpuncher_ : The Musical.

Mr. Winger was still missing. Annie didn't know when he'd be back. She also didn't know what she was going to do once she saw him.

Annie walked into his classroom at the end of the day and took her usual spot next to Troy and Abed. Mr. Winger wasn't in the classroom. Maybe he wasn't here. Maybe he would never come back. Maybe Annie would never have to be confronted with her feelings for Mr. Winger ever again in her whole life.

Mr. Winger walked through the door. Crap.

He hadn't shaved, for a couple of days at least. And his voice kept going out, and he was coughing. Huh. Maybe he _was_ sick after all. Annie felt a mixture of relief and disappointment.

After a quick review of everyone's tasks, Mr. Winger shooed the class off to do their respective jobs. As everyone in the class split up to get cameras, go in the darkroom, or get hall passes, Annie stayed in her seat and watched Mr. Winger. So this was how it was going to be. They were both going to totally ignore what happened. Well, it was for the best. He was her teacher after all...

Mr. Winger looked up and locked eyes with Annie. She fidgeted in her seat. What was he going to do? Run out screaming? Publicly shame her? Roll his eyes? What?

But Mr. Winger just stared at her. And then slowly, he smiled at her. Annie stared at him in shock.

But then she slowly smiled back.

Mr. Winger gathered up some papers and walked towards her desk.

"Darkroom, Edison?"

Annie stood up next to him. "Of course."

* * *

After that, things fell back into a normal routine.

Well, almost normal.

Mr. Winger and Annie continued on with their 'We're just very good friends for a student and a teacher' relationship. Annie was inspired by Troy's relationship with Ms. Perry, although that was more 'student looks up to awesome teacher'.

But there were these moments...

Like how close Mr. Winger stood behind her when he looked over her shoulder at her prints. Or how Annie would always find some way to brush past him, her hands lightly touching his sides as she passed him.

If she actually thought about it, Annie would have probably thought all of this was pretty pathetic.

But she didn't think about it. So she just enjoyed herself.

* * *

It was the night before prom. Abed had decided that they should all go stag to the dance because it would free them up for the multiple plot twists Abed was confident were going to happen.

Abed wanted the plot twists to be as genuine as possible. So the night before the dance, Annie and Troy went over to Abed's house to work on their plot twist drills--drills that would help them effectively dismiss cliched plot twists and encourage real ones.

Annie and Troy were sitting on the couch in Abed's living room. Abed paced back and forth in front of them, a hand on his chin. Behind him was a markerboard with the words 'Plots Twists and YOU' written on it.

Abed stopped pacing. Troy and Annie straightened in their seats.

Abed pointed at Annie. "Troy tells you that he realized he's been in love with you all along."

Annie answered immediately. "I tell Troy that I love him only as a friend and that he's the Duckie to my Andie."

Abed nodded, then pointed at Troy. "You discover that your "lost time" incidents are because you're a werewolf. What do you say?"

Troy dropped to his knees. "WHHHHYYYYY? YOU BROKE YOUR PROMISE, GOD!"

Abed nodded again. "We're ready."

* * *

Despite all their plot twist drills, the dance was pretty mellow. No confessions. No werewolves.

Annie could tell Abed was disappointed.

Mr. Winger was there, of course. He was across the gym, talking to Ms. Bennett. Annie wanted to go up and talk to him, but she didn't know what to say.

Mr. Winger saw her staring at him from across the gym and waved at her. She shook herself out of her thoughts and waved back. He smiled, then turned back towards Ms. Bennett. After a few minutes, he excused himself from Ms. Bennett's company and walked outside.

Annie smiled and turned away, looking for Troy and Abed. They were having a dance off in the middle of the dance floor. Annie took a couple of steps towards her friends, then stopped. She looked over her shoulder towards the exit.

Well, why not. Besides, Abed would be really upset if she passed up the possibility of a plot twist.

She turned around and walked out the exit, looking for Mr. Winger. She didn't have to look far. He was standing just outside the gym, facing the football field.

"Hey," she said.

Mr. Winger turned around. "Hey Edison," he said with a smile.

They both stood there in silence. Annie shuffled her feet awkwardly; Mr. Winger fiddled with the buttons on his suit jacket.

"So," they both said in unison. They laughed nervously.

"So," Annie continued, trying to move past their awkward moment. "I just wanted to say I'm really glad you took over for Mrs. White. You're my favorite teacher, you know."

Mr. Winger slid his hands into his pockets and smiled. "I know. You told me before, remember?"

"I know. It's worth repeating. I'm sure all your students next year will love you."

Mr. Winger's smile faded. "Actually...I'm not coming back to Greendale High."

Annie was shocked. "You're not?"

"No...I'm actually heading back to Denver. Job opportunity. Pretty lucrative. Actually, very lucrative. I'm leaving next week."

"Oh," Annie said. "Wait...then you won't be at Commencement?"

Mr. Winger looked guilty. "No."

Annie's heart sank. "So this is goodbye, then."

"Yeah," Mr. Winger whispered.

"Plot twist," Annie muttered.

"What?"

Annie shook her head. "Nothing." She took a deep breath and gave Mr. Winger her biggest smile. "I'm really happy for you, Mr. Winger. And if this is goodbye..." she held out her hand. "Goodbye."

Mr. Winger smiled again. He shook her hand. "Goodbye, Edison."

Annie wasn't quite sure what happened next. One minute she was shaking Mr. Winger's hand and the next...she was hugging him.

Stupid plot twist emotions!

But before Annie could make an excuse for why she hugged him, Mr. Winger wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back.

"I'll miss you," he whispered. Tears stung in her eyes, so she just nodded against his chest.

They broke apart. Mr. Winger sighed, and gave her an apologetic smile.

Annie wanted to kiss him.

But instead, she took a step back. "Well. Umm...bye."

"Bye."

She turned back around and walked towards the gym.

Well. That almost got stupid. Besides, it was better that she didn't kiss him. Annie didn't want to ruin a good thing.

Right?

Right.

She wanted to make it better.

Annie turned back around. Mr. Winger was still facing her. She walked back over, stopping just in front of him.

She grabbed onto his jacket lapels. "Goodbye, Mr. Winger." Then she pulled him down and pressed her lips to his. He reciprocated immediately, cupping her face in his hands and kissing her back.

After a few (wonderful) moments, they broke apart. Mr. Winger rested his forehead against hers. Annie kept her eyes closed for another beat, a small smile on her lips. Mr. Winger pulled back a little, his hands slipping down to her neck.

He took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "So."

Annie opened her eyes. "So."

They pulled apart.

"Goodbye, Edison."

She bit her lip and nodded. And then she turned around and walked away.

* * *

Annie walked back inside the gym and sat down on the bleachers. Troy and Abed were still having their dance off. She saw Ms. Perry in the crowd around them, cheering Troy on.

Annie sighed and pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes.

A voice piped in beside her. "What happened?"

Annie dropped her hands to her lap. Abed was sitting next to her. She looked back to the dance floor; Ms. Perry had taken Abed's place and was doing some crazy interpretive dance with Troy. She turned back towards Abed, who was looking at her expectantly.

"A plot twist. I'm sorry you missed it."

"You and Mr. Winger? That's not a plot twist."

Annie looked surprised. "How do you---wait. It isn't a plot twist?"

Abed shook his head. "Nope. You and Mr. Winger had chemistry all year. It wasn't as overt as his fling with Ms. Perry, but it was there. You acted on feelings you had for Mr. Winger. You're just completing your storyline. Season Finale style." Abed rested his hand on top of Annie's. "I'm proud of you." Then he stood up and offered an arm towards her.

Completing her storyline. Annie liked that. She stood up and looped her arm through Abed's.

"So if this is the Season Finale...what happens next Season?"

Abed shrugged. "For me? I find true love. For you? I don't know. But knowing you...it'll be epic."

Annie smiled. "Thanks, Abed."

"Yep."

And they walked back onto the dance floor.

* * *

College was fun. But not in the way Annie originally envisioned.

First, her fabulous university ended up being...Greendale Community College. It _was_ her safety school, but even with that fact she never expected she'd actually go there. But Troy and Abed were going there, and it _was_ very affordable...and she really loved Troy and Abed. So Greendale it was.

Someone else got Troy, her former "soulmate", to be their long term guy: Abed. They had actually hidden their relationship from her all summer, but they finally came clean before school started. Actually, Troy just blurted out 'ANNIE, I'M IN LOVE WITH ABED' when they were all hanging out in Abed's dorm room the night before classes started. Annie had just stared at Troy, then turned towards Abed and said: "You did find true love." Abed just nodded.

And that was that.

But Annie _did_ get to date her rebel fantasy guy, the one she imagined wouldn't wear shirts indoors. And he actually _didn't_ wear shirts indoors, either! That didn't last--Annie realized that a guy who spent most of his time without a shirt in public wasn't as cool as it was in her head. They went out on one date only, which apparently was enough for her Rebel Fantasy Guy to write a song about how Annie broke his heart. Ugh. Rebel Nightmare Guy was a more appropriate name.

Every once in a while, something would remind Annie of Mr. Winger. She tried not to think about him too often. There were so many things that made her happy---Troy and Abed, her Journalism classes, and her black backpack with ten (ten!) pockets to store supplies---that she didn't want to dwell on Mr. Winger for too long.

He moved on. She could too.

* * *

Annie, Abed and Troy had one class together: French 101. (Senor Chang pretty much ruined Spanish for them in high school.)

They were walking out of class on Friday afternoon when Troy let out a girlish gasp.

Annie laughed. "Troy, you sounded like some girl in a horror movie--"

But Troy cut her off. "HOLY CRAP IT'S MR. WINGER AND HE LOOKS HOT."

Annie froze. She followed Troy's gaze to the opposite side of the hall. Mr. Winger was standing there, wearing jeans and a brown checkered button up shirt.

He _did_ look hot.

Abed took a step forward. "Oh, would you look at that? Mr. Winger is here. What a coincidence that he would be standing right here in the hallway after our class ended." He looked at his bare wrist. "Would you look at the time? Troy and I are going to be late for our very important thing." Abed looped an arm through Troy's. "Let's go Troy. See you later, Annie." He leaned in close to Annie's ear. "This Season's going to be pretty good, I think."

Annie watched Abed drag Troy away. She heard Troy cry out 'Why didn't you _tell_ me?' Abed responded with a simple 'You have a big mouth. It's a good thing, but not in this case.'

Slowly, Annie turned back towards Mr. Winger, who was staring at her.

She didn't know what to do with her hands. She didn't know what to do, period.

But she had to do something. So Annie took a small step towards him.

"Hi." She clasped her hands behind her back.

Mr. Winger smiled. "Hi."

They stood there for a minute, just smiling at each other.

Finally, Annie broke their smile spell. She cleared her throat. "So...what're you doing here?"

"Taking night classes. I'm back at Greendale High, actually."

Annie looked down at her feet, then slowly looked back up at Mr. Winger. "So...Denver didn't work out?"

He shook his head. "It _was_ good in Denver. Great, even. But I...well...I think Greendale is where I belong, you know?"

Annie nodded happily. "I know."

He smiled. "Anyway. Do you want to take a walk? Kinda crowded in here."

"Actually, I was just going to lunch." Annie said. "Care to join me?"

"Of course. Lead the way...Annie."

"Okay...Jeff."

They walked a few steps before stopping simultaneously.

"Okay, calling you Annie feels weird. Is it weird calling me Jeff?"

Annie nodded. "But I'm not going to call you Mr. Winger. That just sounds kinky now."

He smiled suggestively. "Maybe I like that." He frowned immediately. "Okay, _that_ was creepy."

Annie laughed.

He cleared his throat. "Alright, how's this?" He straightened his shoulders and held his arm out. "Milady?"

Annie looked at his arm and then up at his face. She looped her arm through his, and they shared a smile.

"Milord."

 

 **The End**


End file.
